STudy guides

On the second floor, the architecture building is connected by an enclosed catwalk to the Faculty of Civil Engineering building. Towards Bechyňova ulice, there are three brightly coloured protruding volumes for the main lecture halls.

On a typical floor, there are 10 ateliers, 4 classrooms with audio-visual equipment, a conference room, a student ‘respirium’ for creative repose, and faculty offices. The top two floors contain 17 two-storey ateliers. In the ground floor is the reception, the registrar’s office, the printing centre, a kitchenette, cloakroom, the ArchiCafé, lecture halls and the universal space of the atrium for exhibitions or ceremonial events. On the first cellar level are the modelling workshops, darkroom, GAPPA computer rooms, sculpture atelier, plaster-casting room, two sets of showers and the building technical facilities. The other below-ground levels are reserved for parking.

All rooms are marked with a three-digit numeral (e.g. 441), in which the first digit indicates the above-ground level. For rooms in the below-ground floor, the number is preceded with the letter S (e.g. S147). Entry into the building is through a turnstile, requiring a valid ISIC card or a CTU student ID card (issued by the CTU identification department). Guests may enter after registering at the reception.

From Monday to Friday, the building is open from 6:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and on Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. On Sundays, public holidays and any time outside the opening hours, entrance is possible only with permission from the faculty secretary.

BUILDING PARAMETERS

THE ARCHITECTS OF THE FA BUILDING

The requirement for registration is submission of a document of completed secondary education. During the first year of studies, the registrar’s office automatically registers your courses in KOS, while from the second year on you register the courses yourself. Undergraduate studies at the FA are ‘non-yearly’, meaning that you can register for classes in different order, though there are a few successions that need to be followed. Which courses are prerequisites for the next is something that you can find on the FAQ page (FAQ link). Registration of courses is always opened in KOS one week before the start of the relevant semester. During the same week, informational meetings are held for registration in the various ateliers. Details can be found in the study and exam procedures for CTU students on the general CTU website.

Depending on your chosen focus, you can sign up for several of over 30 ateliers for the program in architecture and urbanism, or 5 ateliers for industrial design. Instruction follows the principle of the ‘vertical atelier’, where students in various years of study work alongside each other on different types of projects under the guidance of experienced pedagogues. As such, possible solutions to working themes can be discussed among colleagues with greater or lesser experience, as well as with the atelier supervisors. At the end of each semester, a central exhibition is held of the projects from all ateliers, and the best student projects are published annually in the Faculty of Architecture yearbook. In the fall semester, student projects and ateliers compete for the ‘Plumb-Bob’ (Olověný Dušan) award, a faculty-wide competition held by the Association of Architecture Students. The idea of the vertical atelier has been progressively developed at the FA since the 1990s, creating a method of creative studio experience that cannot be found at any other architectural school.

Overseas exchanges (from Argentina or Peru all the way to Japan or South Korea) are also organised through extra-European bilateral agreements. The CTU has its own International Student Club (ISC), which operates the ‘buddy program’ to address the needs of international students at the CTU. Held every October is a major information event, the Study Abroad Fair.

Among the association’s activities are organising lectures, exhibitions or architecture excursions. The main event of the Association is the annual competition ‘Plumb-Bob’ (Olověný Dušan)

SPA has its own website, where you can find the latest events organised by the association as well as large quantities of collected materials on individual courses.

At the International Office, we are always glad to help you with ordinary study situations, issuing confirmation of university studies, documents on completion of studies, registration of diploma works, and even state final examinations. The International Office also provides all necessary information about FA CTU admissions procedures. Contact information and office hours are on the International Office website.

Students compile their timetables themselves, based on what subjects they register for and what exercise group (‘parallel’) they pick. Fixed places in the timetable are assigned to the ateliers, which for many years now have been planned for Monday and for Thursday afternoon.

How do you get into it? Type the address www.kos.cvut.cz and then enter your username and password. You get them once you receive your acceptance letter, which comes by post and contains the initialisation password. Then on the CTU website, you select the Faculty of Architecture, and after using your initialisation password you find your unique username valid for the CTU and type in your password. This is what you will later use for KOS. Careful with capital and lower-case letters! The password can of course be changed. If there are any problems, contact the International Office in person.

• How do I register a course? “courses” → “register for course” (careful, usually it is possible to register for a course only during a brief period; make sure you know what the situation is at the FA, and if you are registering for a course at a different faculty, find out when the registration period is open there).

• How do I create my personal timetable? At the Faculty of Architecture starting in the third semester; until then, the timetable is set by the Registrar’s Office). You can only add a course to your timetable if you have registered it beforehand or in a preliminary registration. Then click on “timetable” → “create personal timetable” → on the line for the specific course, click on “display” → the table comes up with the listing of course hours both for exercises and lectures → now all you have to do is to select the time and date of the exercise/lecture, and if there is still free space in it, click on “register”.

• How do I register an exam? “credits and examinations” → “terms for credits and examinations” → select the course for the right semester → click on “select term” and for the selected term click on “register”.

• How do I check my study results? “other topics” → “study results” (it’s always good to stay aware of whether the instructor or examiner really did register your exam or credit within the given deadline).

The computer rooms, hidden behind the abbreviation GAPPA, are located in the FA building souterrain. One of the computer rooms is continually open and serves as a round-the-clock study hall. 

Several printing possibilities are supplied at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, these being the plotter VIC in room Ds108 (ground floor in building D – behind the catwalk from building B), the TINA printers in building B in front of the catwalk to Atelier D, the private Robocopy Automat machines near the quite study room and the buffet or the copy centre beside the cloakroom behind the catwalk from Civil Engineering to the FA. You can also use other private copy centres near the Faculty: IKAN in the National Technical Library, REPRO Fetterle on náměstí Na Santince or Powerprint in Zikova ulice.

If, however, it is necessary to travel to the FA by car, you can park in paid zones along Bechyňova ulice or (as long as you arrive sufficiently early) for free in the section of Kolejní ulice. Another possibility is the parking area directly within the FA, where you can park for short periods at an hourly rate or arrange a pre-paid fee.